BOOK REVIEW: Queer Hauntings: True Tales of Gay and Lesbian Ghosts by Ken Summers

 

Behind many hauntings is a history of drama, passion, and often tragedy. Big events and strong emotions that anchor the souls of the dead to the mortal realm. For many ghost-hunters, chronicling the stories of who their spectral subjects were in life is even more fascinating than the hauntings themselves.  But as author Ken Summers points out in his introduction to this book, nearly all of these backstories deal with straight- or at least, perceived straight- individuals. “Where were the gay, lesbian, and bisexual entities in paranormal literature?” he asks.

“Queer Hauntings” is Summer’s effort to document these overlooked or forgotten ghostly manifestations.  The book is as a survey of locations, such as historical gay bars or the abodes of famous queer people, where supernatural happenings have been reported.. Many of the ghosts have fascinating histories, such as Timber Kate, a sex worker in the Old West who performed regularly on-stage with her partner Bella Rawhide. Or James Whale the director of Frankenstein and other Universal horror movies who began life as a quiet, sensitive artistic kid in an English mining town.

 Like many ghost stories, there is great tragedy too, such as the robbery and murder of Bill Neville, whose spirit allegedly still dwells in the theater he loved so much in life. Or Lizzie Borden’s lonely, reclusive life which was punctuated by a brief romance with a married woman.

Though the book primarily focuses on hauntings in the US, Summers also highlights a few queer ghosts form the United Kingdom, such as Piers Gaveston, the intimate companion of King Edward II whose ghost plays tricks on visitors to Scarborough Castle.

Some of the queer implications for the ghosts may seem slight because in life many of these people had to hide their bi- or homosexuality from the public, so researchers can only get hints and inferences- such as folks who had especially close and intimate “friends” of the same sex. And like many alleged real-life hauntings, the evidence in these cases can be very slight- a few phantom footsteps heard in the early morning or a dark, wispy figure walking down a corridor. But regardless of the veracity of these supernatural occurrences, they add an important queer element to the literature of hauntings.

Get a copy of Queer Hauntings here.